Madelaine Caracas: What is happening in Nicaragua?

Free talk by Madelaine Caracas, a 20-year Nicaraguan activist who is travelling through Europe to denounce the Ortega massacre as part of an informational caravan of solidarity.

The event is chaired by Paul Laverty, scriptwriter of I, Daniel Blake and Carla's Song.

It's in Room 1.20 of the Dugald Stewart Building.

Background

The Nicaraguan government, led by President Daniel Ortega and his vice-President wife Rosario Murillo, is waging war on its own people. For the past two months, the unarmed population has faced attack after attack from the police and paramilitary forces using war weapons to shoot to kill. Police have consistently fired into crowds demonstrating peacefully, including the massive Mother’s Day March on May 30th in solidarity with the families of those killed in mid-April.

Every day state and irregular forces continue to shoot protesters who have raised barricades in towns across the country as a way of defending themselves, reminiscient of the popular resistance to the Somoza dictatorship in the 1970s. The atrocities against the civilian population are worsening and have resulted in at least 285 killed, another 2500 injured and countless others detained.

This event is supported by Scottish residents in solidarity with the people of Nicaragua and the Human Geography Research Group and the Global Development Academy of the University of Edinburgh.